"Rather have" was the wrong term. Should have asked "which side do you think is the least destructive?" Sorry!

I would take wind. Why? Because we already have something like 10+" of rain in the month of August. The ground is mushy already. We are expected to get another 9" on Sunday. I have no idea where it's going, but my septic field is really not going to be very happy. Perfect for someone getting ready to sell the house.

Plus, since we are probably going to lose power, I won't be able to run the sump pump.

Goodnight, Irene. Go away.

Winds are worse on the east side, rain on the west.

Hard to tell. In MA the rain side--well, we're all gonna get a lot of rain, but you know what I mean--may clock in at 10-15". That's like a lake falling on your house.

In my experience the winds have always caused the most damage. The gusts on a strong storm typically have tornados embedded in them. At least in my So. Florida experience. Wishing all my family and friends on the east coast well.

I'll take rain, even with all the flooding. My area in Queens NY had a tornado a year ago that took out 10% of the trees in the neighborhood, including flattening the west half of a small park. Not to mention damage to buildings and quite a few crushed cars.

It's so innocently sunny today.

I'll take the rain over the wind anyday...but it looks like I will not get my way this sunday I am on the east side as of now. And I will also probally get tidal surge flooding as well...I remember gloria pretty well and I live on the coast so I expect these storms from time to time( everything in 20+ year cycles right) but I worry bout NYC and the hospitals and all... Hope it is not as bad as the predictions. Hope everyone is still safe on monday!

Rain, definitely. Wind causes power outages and my neighborhood is always the first to lose power and last to get it back. I actually live right along the Chesapeake Bay and we don't have city water, so if we lose power, that means no working well and no running water. Wind also causes storm surges here. During Isabel in '03, my neighborhood lost 8-10 houses that were washed away or completely destroyed due to the storm surge. Even if we got a ton of rain, my neighborhood doesn't get much flooding from that. And lastly, I am surrounded by 60-90 foot trees, so yeah, wind scares me more. We don't sleep in our bedrooms during powerful wind storms for fear of a tree coming down on the house.

Definitely prefer rain here!

Rain! Wind knocks down trees and branches, and that's sad enough as it is, but the branches take out power lines too.

Can I take "neither" for $100 Alex?

More people are killed in flooding than wind damage when it comes to a hurricane.

Wind over rain.

Hoping everyone is safe and enjoying
a good hurricane party.
~boxerpups

More people die due to storm surges which are mostly caused by the high winds so I still think the worse damage to property and lives is directly caused by winds in hurricanes not amount of rain fall.

Both are not good. Hurricane Frances in 2004 was a direct hit to Sewalls Point FL and the wind and rain left so much destruction. The hardship is getting through the storms then dealing with the aftermath long after the storm has passed. I feel so much for those up the East Coast. I'm still tired from that group of storms we experienced all in a row for a couple years. Just hope it weakens and it is not catastrophic.

I'll take the earthquakes and y'all can keep both the wind and the rain! (We have plenty of wind and rain problem too, and the rain is worse on its own, but wind usually brings fire which is worst of all...and most like a hurricane, really.)

All of you please be safe, hang onto your pets, and evacuate if you're told to.

I'd pick rain right now because we are deep into a drought and I want to cry when I drive down the road and see all the dead and dying trees. My squirrels are half the size they were this spring. Not nearly as many birds, and I'm sure all the wildlife is impacted. A lot of rain would wash away a lot where there is no grass left to hold the soil, but wind would know down all those dying trees and be so much more damaging and dangerous. I hope we can get some rain without a hurricane to knock down all those trees.

I'm in New Brunswick Canada, and we are definitely not used to huricanes! Right now we are (as many of you are) in the direct path, but I'm really hoping it will weaken by the time it gets to us. As of right now I would rather rain. Thats because my neighbor has a couple very old (they need to be taken down) poppler trees that are looming over my house. A good wind storm could put them through my roof. Rain is also a concern if we don't have power to run the sump pump - but our basement could easily handle a foot or so of water down there before anything gets damaged.

We are as prepared to handle hurricanes in my neck of the woods as Orlando would be prepared to handle a good winter storm with 3 ft of snow and ice (which of course we would barely bat an eye at).

Like remodelfla, I'll take rain over wind ANY time. I"m not a native but have lived in Fl for 35 years. After going through Andrew, then of course that year of triple storms in '06 (or was it '05? turning into an old coot here)...I wouldn't wish for anyone to be subjected to hurricane force, or even tropical force winds unleashed on northern houses. Having seen what storms can do to structures down here built of concrete block reinforced with steel rods and more poured concrete-rain is bad but a hurricane inside your house is far worse. Not to mention what wind does to the infrastructure. I still have a soft spot in my heart for Tampa Electric, the guys who showed up at my house 3 weeks post-Andrew to reconnect my power. After Wilma we were out again for 3 weeks. After all these years of living in Miami, I still hate and fear that sound of a hurricane wind outside.

Hope everyone on the east coast gets through the storm with no damage!

Thanks all. I wish I (we)could wager, "Can I take "neither" for $100 Alex?" Good one cat_mom!

From what I have read and experienced, wind on west, rain on east, marcolo. So after your post, I am confused.

Rain seems to be the least destructive opinion for many of the posters here. The tress in NE are still loaded with green leaves. Not a good combo with high winds. Thankfully Irene has been downgraded to a Cat 1. Hope she continues to weaken.

Stay safe everyone.

The dog is acting very strangely this morning. No birds or wild life this morning either. No deer, squirrels, chipmunks, nothing. Perhaps they know something we do not.

There is wind and rain on all sides of a hurricane, so I'm kind of confused by this thread.

The NE quadrant of a storm is generally the fiercest, but I've had the most damage here from the weak side of a relatively weak storm since we had the bad luck to get one of the small supercells that can be found anywhere in a hurricane, as can tornadoes.

You don't get to choose based on which side of the storm you're on, I'm afraid. It's not one or the other.

this is from usa taday weather not sure how accurate it is :
Q Are the winds on one side of a hurricane faster than on the other side?

A: If a hurricane or other tropical cyclone is moving the winds on one side will be faster than on the opposite side in relation to the ocean or ground the storm is moving over. In the Northern Hemisphere the fastest winds will be on the right side, if you are looking in the direction of the storm's movement. That is, if the hurricane is moving toward the west, the strongest winds will be on the north side; if it's moving north, the strongest winds will be on the east side.

It's the opposite in the Southern Hemisphere. (See the question right above this one for why.)

To see why the winds on the right side of a Northern Hemisphere hurricane or typhoon are faster than those on the left, imagine the winds are circling the storm at 100 mph, and the entire storm is moving forward at 10 mph. With counterclockwise winds of 100 mph added to the forward speed of 10 mph on the right side, a ship there will be hit by 110 mph winds because the 100 mph winds and forward motion of the storm are in the same direction.. Another ship, to the left of the storm's center, where the 10 mph forward motion is subtracted from the 100 mph wind speed, will feel 90 mph winds.

This was first realize in the 19th century and was one of the first important advances in understanding tropical cyclones and other storms. In fact, this knowledge was called the "Law of Storms" in the 19th century and various scientists wrote books telling ship captions how to use it to figure out where they were in relation to a storm's center and which way to go to said away from a storm's strongest winds and highest waves. This is described in detail in Chapter 2 of Hurricane Watch: Forecasting the Deadliest Storms on Earth by Dr. Bob Sheets and Jack Williams, published by Vintage Books, 2001

Irene is moving north so winds will be greater on the east side and thus the fear of great water surges in NYC. Good luck everyone oh and the west side will still generate quite a lot of wind too just not 100 but 60mph is more than a enough to rattle homes and trees.

I realize there is both wind and rain associated with a hurricane, on all sides. But we were having a discussion at work yesterday about the tracking of the storm and the different impacts.

The result of that conversation was that if the storm tracks more east, we would be on the west side of the storm (stronger winds). And if the storm tracks more west, we would be on the east side of the storm (heavier rains).

Perhaps I have this all wrong? Maybe someone in the know could chime in to clarify? Thanks!

The NE quadrant of most storms has the strongest prevailing winds. However, in any storm there are often small supercells (maybe 1 to 5 miles across) where things are very intense. These can occur anywhere in the storm, as happened to us in Wilma.

For most of our area it was more of a nuisance storm than anything. For us and the area immediately around us, we had more damage from supposedly worn-out Wilma (which had already had the drag of crossing the state before it got to us) than we did from the two storms that made landfall directly over us, because of that little supercell.

celtinne, in our northern hemisphere it is the opposite of what you and your collegues where saying. If the storm blows out to sea ,ie east, the winds will be greatly reduced on the coast for now the coast would be on the west of the storm. That is why everyone wants tropical storms to blow out to sea or east of land so that the land is to the left of the system.

Whew! Thanks for clearing that up for me. Best of luck everyone!

I'll take wind over rain. I'm more prepared for a power outage caused by trees down than I am for a flooded basement, warping floors, mold, etc.

News on Irene is better for NYC - we're now supposed to prepare for a tropical storm with hurricane gusts (and storm surge). Much better than the "ONCE IN A GENERATION DEVASTATING HURRICANE ON THE WAY!!!" reports from earlier in the week.

Stay safe, all!

Rain...like fourkids4us & beekeeperswife, we are on a well & septic and if we lose power, we lose water and power to the sump pump. For water, we've filled our big garden tub w/water so we can at least flush one toilet, but that also means no showers, drinking water, etc. Of course, mega-amounts of rain aren't good for septic fields...oh well!

Also, as others have mentioned, with wet ground (especially if it's already water logged), we could lose trees & telephone poles (we're in the "rural west" of our county and the vast majority of the power lines are still strung on poles, not run underground).

We weathered Isabel pretty well and only lost power for 18 hours, but many, many, many others were without power for several weeks, IIRC!